Tenryu Animation
| services = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | assets = | equity = | num_employees = | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | owner = | company_slogan = | homepage = | dissolved = | footnotes = }}Tenryu Animation (天龍アニメーション) is an Akitian anime studio and production enterprise. It is the oldest animation studio in Akitsu. It is the second largest and second most famous Akitian anime studio. Though it has found much success within Akitsu, it has largely been overshadowed by Japanese anime studio's outside of Akitsu, primarily due to it's lack of expansion into non-Japanese speaking nations. This lack of expansion was partly as a result of their own strict standards, refusing to accept deals with companies that produced dub's that were seen by the company as sub-par. However, in recent times it has been seeking to start airing elsewhere, including in Japan and other nations. Most of it's more famous works are recent, owing to it's recent launching of an ad-supported internet streaming option for people to view it's content from. History Tenryu Animation was founded in January 24rd, 1954 by Yuki Fuyukawa and a group of her friends. The anime industry had existed in Akitsu prior to that, but had never gained in much prominence. However, this started to change when Tenryu Animation released their first animated film, the Tale of the Ishibiya. It became their first successful animated film, and is credited with giving the Akitian anime industry the push it needed to start rising. Since then they continued to make anime films that were successful in Akitsu. Tenryu Animation first dabbled in foreign releases with their 1983 film Song of the Sky, a film set in the 1960's about a pilot within the Akitian air force in a fictional World War 3 scenario in which Akitsu is invaded by the China with support from the Soviet Union. The film was meant to convey a warning about the possible destruction that modern warfare can bring, trying to paint all people (regardless of their side) as casualties of war. The rights to release the film was given to New World Pictures for a release in the United States. However, after the company heavily edited Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Tenryu considered scrapping the deal and revoking the rights to the film from New World Studio's. New World Studio's however assured Tenryu that they would be happy with the outcome of the film. What came out instead was something that horrified the producers of the film. The original theme of the film was completely abandoned, with the Chinese and Russians being altered into aggressive villains. The American VHS cover featured characters that weren't even present in the film. A total of 34 minutes and 53 seconds was cut from the film in the American release, and furthermore some of the dialogue was altered in the translation. The animators at Tenryu were appalled that their work would be treated in such a way and Tenryu Animation then practically halted all licensing to foreign studios. The only exceptions to this were to several Japanese anime studio's, but these licensing agreements were few and far between. This policy started changing in the early 2000's, but a concerted effort to increase their audience to outside of Akitsu only started in 2013 when they started their ad-supported online streaming service on their website. Notable Works Kotonoha Karma Kotonoha Karma (Japanese: 言の葉カルマ, English: Word Karma) is a story that revolves around Isamu Nakamori (中森 勇) and Rina Tachibana (橘 莉奈). Isamu is known in his high school for not being the best student. He is regularly late for school, sometimes even leaves in the middle of the day, and sometimes even skips classes entirely. Because of this he is always in trouble with Rina, head of the student-run disciplinary committee at the school. It is only on one day when Rina has finally had enough of it and chases Isamu, only to find that him fighting against a monstrous creature using a creature of his own. Barely escaping safely after being protected by Isamu, Isamu explains that his family is one of very few that has some spiritual powers and that they had been fighting against these dark creatures, known as Jagi (邪鬼), every since before the founding of the Kingdom of Shoku. Rina is then presented with a surprising fact: her family must be one with the same spiritual powers since she can see the Jagi. Isamu presents her with two options: either Isamu will use his spiritual powers to change Rina's memory of the incident, or Rina will join the fight against the Jagi and Isamu and his family will train her in her powers. Rina chose the latter. Resurrection of the Devil Resurrection of the Devil (Japanese: 悪魔の復活, Akuma no Fukkatsu) is Tenryu's first work to be released outside of Akitsu, having been released in Sierra at the same day that it was released in Akitsu. Within Akitsu it's release was noted with some controversy, as it is one of the darkest anime's to have been released by Tenryu. The first two episodes included gory scenes and disturbing imagery, which went noted by Akitian viewers. However, while it did stur up some minor controversy, the anime itself has been praised due to the fact that it uses these elements to enhance the feeling of horror in the anime rather than create it. The story revolves around Shizuka Kusamoto (草本 静香) and her friends. Shizuka is new to her group of friends but even so quickly finds herself as an integral part of the group. Then, a number of eerie incidents begins to befall her friends, almost always ending in one or more of them being injured (sometimes seriously). When one of them finally dies they notice someone in the distance, and while Shizuka doesn't know who it is the rest of her friends go into a panic claiming that what they are going through is a "curse". The person who confronted them turns out to be Hibiki Ueno (上野 響), who apparently died a gruesome death several years earlier. Hibiki, who is now a Onryo (怨霊), a type of Rei born from a vengeful human spirit. Though Shizuka had little to do with Hibiki's death, her association with her friends makes her a target of Hibiki's wrath too. Hibiki pledges to force the group to repeat the same three weeks over and over, for the rest of eternity. To stop this, Shizuka needs to uncover the truth behind Hibiki's death, and the dark secrets that her friends have been hiding from her and continue to hide from her. See Also